Performance assessment of advanced process control algorithms using an interacting tank system

The paper describes a controller performance assessment (CPA) method. The method is applied to evaluate advanced process control strategies using an interacting tank system (ITS). Since this plant has been specially designed with characteristics and problems inherent to the actual process industry environment, it is a test-bed with the necessary creditability for one to draw conclusions about controller performances. The CPA method aims at accomplishing the performance assessment of a control system, running on line, in real time. It is based on measurements of the control signal, the output signal and the error signal. The performance evaluation is centered on the system users' views. The users considered are: the system manager, the system operator and the control engineer. The method allows the development of comparative studies of the controllers' performances. The paper presents such studies for the following SISO controllers in a multi-loop strategy: generalized minimum variance (GMV), generalized predictive controller (GPC) and a fixed parameter PID. The performances' comparative studies for a MIMO-GMV and a multivariable fuzzy controllers are also presented.